Throughout the 1990s, [John Thomas Neal] was [Lance Armstrong’s] main soigneur at some domestic races and at national team training camps.
The New York Times carries
a page-long excerpt from
Juliet Macur's
Cycle of Lies (
Cycles de mensonges in French).
But in Europe and at the big races, the honor of rubbing down Armstrong went to John Hendershot.
Among
soigneurs in the European peloton (another French word, one that refers
to professional riders generally as well as the pack during a race),
Hendershot was at once the cool kid and the calculating elder. Other
soigneurs envied the money
he made and the cachet that came with the
cash. Wherever he walked — through race crowds or at home in Belgium —
people turned to catch a glimpse. Teams wanted him. Armstrong wanted
him. Neal said he was “like a god to me” and called him “the best
soigneur that ever was.”
Hendershot,
an American who lived in Belgium to be closer to the main cycling
circuit, was a massage therapist, physical therapist and miracle worker.
His laying-on of hands would bring an exhausted, aching rider to life.
Eating at Hendershot’s direction, sleeping according to his advice, a
rider began each morning reborn. He came with all the secrets of a
soigneur and an unexpected skill developed over the years. In Neal’s
words, Hendershot took to cycling’s drug culture “like a duck to water.”
But his enthusiasm for and skills in chemistry would be remembered as
his special talent.
Before
speaking to me last year, Hendershot — who had retired from the sport
in 1996, shortly after Armstrong’s cancer diagnosis — had never told his
story to a reporter. After all the years of silence, he seemed relieved
to finally share it.
… Hendershot
said the riders on his teams had a choice about using drugs. They could
“grab the ring or not.” He said he didn’t know a single professional
cyclist who hadn’t at least dabbled in doping. The sport was simply too
difficult — and many times impossible, as was the three-week Tour de
France — for riders who didn’t rely on pharmaceutical help.
… Cycling
has been one of Belgium’s most popular sports for generations, and the
pharmacist didn’t question Hendershot’s request for such large
quantities of drugs. In exchange, Hendershot would give the pharmacist a
signed team jersey or all-access passes to big races.
Then he would
leave with bags filled with the blood booster EPO, human growth hormone,
blood thinners, amphetamines, cortisone, painkillers and testosterone, a
particularly popular drug he’d hand to riders “like candy.”
… Hendershot
said all those riders probably believed they were doing no wrong by
doping. The definition of cheating was flexible in a sport replete with
pharmacology: It’s not cheating if everybody is doing it. Armstrong
believed that to be the dead-solid truth. For him, there was no
hesitation, no second-guessing, no rationalizing.
As Hendershot had done, Armstrong grabbed the ring.
… His
former sponsors — including Oakley, Trek Bicycle Corporation,
RadioShack and Nike — have left him scrambling for money. He considers
them traitors. He says Trek’s revenue was $100 million when he signed
with the company and reached $1 billion in 2013.
“Who’s
responsible for that?” he asks, before cursing and saying, “Right
here.” He pokes himself in the chest with his right index finger. “I’m
sorry, but that is true. Without me, none of that happens.”
